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Budget Session Wrap 2015

Budget Session 2015 closed today.

Productivity for Lok Sabha stands at 123% while Rajya Sabha’s productivity stands at 102%. Question hour at the end of the Session functioned for 84% of its scheduled time in Lok Sabha and 80% of its scheduled time in Rajya Sabha.

Visit our Session Track page to know complete details about Parliament's functioning and productivity. All data is updated as of yesterday.

In all, a total of 20 bills were introduced during the Session. Of these, five bills were referred to Standing Committees. These include: the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Development (Amendment) Bill, the Commercial Courts, Commercial Division and Commercial Appellate Division of High Courts Bill, the National Waterways Bill, the Compensatory Afforestations Fund Bill, and the Homoeopathy Central Council (Amendment) Bill.

The Benami Transactions (Prohibition) (Amendment) Bill was also introduced on the last day of the session. The government promised that this Bill would be sent to a Standing Committee for detailed scrutiny.

The Constitutional Amendment Bill rolling out GST has been referred to a Select Committee of Rajya Sabha; while the Land Acquisition (Second) Bill has been referred to a Joint Parliamentary Committee.

16 bills have been passed during this Session. Of these five replace Ordinances and other include bills like the black money bill, the constitutional amendment bill ratifying the land agreement between Bangladesh and India among others.

· This session saw the highest instances of recorded voting in the past 15 years. So far, in the 16th Lok Sabha, 17% of the Bills have been passed by recorded voting. On average, in the past 15 years, each Lok Sabha saw about 5% of the Bills being passed by recorded voting. These do not include Constitutional amendments.

· Financial business in Lok Sabha comprised of 26% of the total business. Lok Sabha discussed the demands for grants of six ministries. The ministries discussed, account for 21% of the expenditure budget, and address allocations to Human Resource Development, Drinking Water and Sanitation, Home Affairs, etc.

· Legislative business comprised 28% of the total business.Bills replacing Ordinances were 39% of the total Bills introduced. On average, in the 14th and 15th Lok Sabha, Bills replacing Ordinances were 11% and 8% of the total Bills introduced, respectively. In the last 10 years, the other instance when Ordinances had a high share of the Bills introduced was in Budget session 2008, when the ratio was 42%.

· After many years, an amendment to the Motion of Thanks for the President’s Address was passed in Rajya Sabha. The motion expressed regret that the government has not taken any steps to curb corruption and black money.

· In the last 47 years, no Private Member Bill has been passed by either House. In this session, a Private Member Bill moved by Mr. Tiruchi Siva, the Rights of Transgender Persons Bill, 2014, was passed unanimously by Rajya Sabha.

For detailed analyses about the functioning of Parliament during this session and comparison with data over the past years you can take a look at our vital stats document here.